Tuesday, June 1, 2010

(June 1) -- This past spring, like so many others before it, has been a difficult one for Beth Holloway. But she's never given up hope of finding her daughter Natalee, who disappeared five years ago this May, and she continues to devote time to helping others along the way.

"[I've] made it my life's work every day to represent Natalee to speak on behalf of her," Holloway said in an interview on the "Today" show on Sunday, the anniversary of her daughter's disappearance.

Mike Wintroath, AP

Beth Holloway, the mother of Natalee Holloway, who has been missing for five years, said this weekend that she still has hope she will one day know what happened to her daughter.

"I know, five years -- it is hard to imagine it has been that long. But I still feel that there is a potential for information ... to come, so I still have hope that at some point we will have [answers]," Holloway said.

Natalee Holloway, 18, from Mountain Brook, Ala., disappeared May 30, 2005, while on a trip to Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation. Her body has never been found.

Holloway's classmates said they last saw her leaving an Oranjestad nightclub called Carlos 'n Charlie's with Joran van der Sloot, then a 17-year-old Dutch honors student living in Aruba, and his two friends, Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. All three young men were arrested, but they were released without charge.

From the outset, van der Sloot allegedly has made multiple confessions in the case, each varying significantly. As a result, Aruban prosecutors have deemed them a mixture of "lies and fantasy" and have decided not to take action against him.

Beth Holloway said she puts little stock in van der Sloot's individual confessions -- the latest of which came to light in February -- and pays more attention to the one constant detail that can be found in each of them.

"[He] has always placed himself as the last person seen with Natalee alive. ... So that is our one continuous thread," Holloway said.

Holloway has also had to deal with a lot of false hopes in her daughter's case. The numerous searches in Aruba all ended without turning up new clues, while other incidents -- such as false sightings and a recent underwater search prompted by a photograph of possible human remains -- have compounded the disappointment.

But rather than dwell on details of the case, which she has no control over, Holloway is focused on her recent partnership with Mayday 360, a company that helps families in crisis, and the launching of the Natalee Holloway Resource Center in Washington, D.C. Those two projects, she said, have helped her redefine her life.

The Natalee Holloway Resource Center website is still under construction; however, its welcome page states that the nonprofit's focus will be on educational programs, safe travel and crime prevention, along with support for families of missing persons.